Parent Teacher Conference

One of the perks of the the wonderful daycare that we have is that we have real feedback from our teachers on a daily basis, and twice a year we have a sit-down, parent teacher conference with the lead teacher.  (We could rave about this place until the cows come home, and then I remember how much we're paying and it helps to level things out...)

Last week we had our first of two (three?) PTC's at Abby's school, and all is right in Abby's developmental world!  Hooray!  Actually, she is doing better than her classmates on the charts, but that's because she is older and associated more with a boy who has since moved to the older classroom.  She got check marks down two pages of "Developmental Goals of a 12-24 Month Old" and has begun to check things off on the same type of list for 24-36 month olds.  It's really hard to believe how much she has developed, grown and just become a whole little person over the last six months.

There were two comments that stuck out on the otherwise Abby-Praising Pages:

1 - "Abby has developed an aversion to wet and sticky things - like finger paints."
Umm - what child does not like finger paints?  It would seem that my daughter does not like them.  She is the same toddler that does not like rice because of the texture.  Yesterday afternoon I tried to work on this, but Anny pulled out the paintbrush that I had stashed on the table (out of sight) before I popped open the paint.  Oh well, we will work on this one.

2 - "Abby is beginning to show age-appropriate aggression."
Yeah - our toddler is beating people up.  Not other-toddler people, either.  No, not really.  Abby is very routine and schedule oriented.  When I had her home last week sick for a couple of days I tried to stick to our normal routines, and she kept me to them!  Even her nap was on time, at her persistence.  Turns out that at school if they try to spring something on her (even as simple as "time to change your diaper") she can be pretty forceful about not moving.  She has even been caught on several occasions pushing her teachers!

All in all, Abby's progress is awesome and she's ahead of the curve on a lot of things.  Really, as long as she's having fun, we're happy.  (But it was totally awesome to hear someone else say what we've been thinking!)

Happy Halloween!

(Click on any photo to see a larger version)

At Abby's school yesterday they had a costume parade, and played with bubbles:


Here she is leading the charge for more fun!



I made a flower to go with the costume at dinner.  It did not last long once she figured out people were giving her food!


We only visited five or six houses, all of folks that we wanted to say "hi" to anyway.  In spite of that, she got a bag FULL of food!  Here she is checking out her haul!


Upon closer investigation, she dumped the bag and picked out a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup (my favorite, too).  We did NOT let her eat it right before bed time, I promise.  (And for the record, I didn't eat it either!)



Here is my favorite shot from the night. I like it for several reasons, but mostly because she was just so blissfully happy to dig into a big container of sugar. I'm sure she would have, if we let her.












Now the big question is whether or not to let her have some candy. She's had a few pieces of candy over her short life (Thanks Amy!) but typically chocolate winds her up. We'll probably have some with breakfast and keep it at that!

Happy Halloween!
(Or, at this point, All Saints Day!)

Two Day Shoes

Three is a dilemna when you have a child that truly requires patience and timing.  Shoes.

Now that Abby can walk, shoes are not only important, but essential.  It was not that long ago that they were simply a fashion statement... merely a foot covering.  Now that she has the ability to use the bottom of her feet for more than tickling the right shoe at the right time has become a game.

In the last month Abby has grown out of five pairs of shoes.  One she had worn for a month prior.  One we got on July 3 and she is wearing for the last time today. 

One pair, though, she wore twice.  TWO TIMES.  $42 for less than 24 hours of wear time.  ARGH!

We got a pair of the Robeez Tredz* when they first came out, but knew that they were too big.  Every other week or so I've checked to see if they fit, but they never did.  Until last Saturday afternoon.  Success!  The shoes fit!  "She should wear them Sunday" I said, and so she did. 

"They're adorable, she should wear them everyday" I said. 

And she did.

Until Monday afternoon.

You see, Abby has very chubby feet.  They're better now than they used to be.  At least they are no longer as fat as they are long! I noticed that her chubby feet were a bit constricted on Sunday when we took her shoes off, but she seemed okay with it, so we thought they were good.

On Monday at school she apparently just gave up walking about halfway through the day because her feet hurt so much. Poor kid.  She tried to rip her shoes off of her feet, so they took them off for her.  Luckily we had sent some socks with grippy feet, because that's how she got around the rest of the day.

TWO.  DAY.  SHOES.  This might get expensive over the years...

Lucky for her we have a few pairs ready to go, including three that fit right now.  That does mean, though, that we will be buying shoes this weekend in several sizes.  (Outlet shopping ROCKS!)

*We are hoping to find a pair of Tredz this weekend that are more shoe than sandal.  The linked shoe is the one Abby wore for two days.  It is in no way a reflection on their shoes, simply a reflection on her feet.

Officially a Crawler!!

It seems that Abby is much more mobile at school than at home. I guess it is to be expected as we don't have much easy-to-crawl space in our living room. We have a 5x7 carpet surrounded by hardwood all the way to the bedrooms. I guess that I have refused to acknowledge that she's been crawling because she has not been doing it at home.

That all changed yesterday before church. I could tell that Abby was getting hungry, so I put her bottle on one end of the carpet and her on the other. I tell you, hunger is the best motivator! She got there in a flash, even while stumbling over her toys to get there.

Once we got to church it was a sealed deal. The nursery is baby friendly, so there is carpet from wall to wall, and more toys than you can imagine. I plopped her on the floor so that she could sit and play. I pushed the toys way out of her reach, and she bolted for them! It was GREAT! By the time Anny came down from her meeting, Abby was all over the place.

(Side note: if you want to play with toys from YOUR childhood, go to a church nursery. They're all in good condition, but about 25 years old! I don't even mean toys like the ones you played with, these are definitely the originals!)

Guess it's time to finish baby proofing the living room and kitchen. The gate to the stairs is up, and that's where my biggest concern has been. Everything else would pale in comparison.

Any advice for a new-crawler?

Why I am a Jealous Dad

Okay, it happened again yesterday. Abby was home sick (not homesick, very different issue) and I got to spend the day with her. I adore my time with my daughter, and enjoy spending as much of my day as possible with the both of them.

However, I am a jealous dad sometimes.

Anny is a teacher, so when Abby is out of school, Anny is. They spend the day playing, and sometimes visit me at the office. I am almost always at work. Abby is healthy and not fussy on those days.

I get the day alone with her only when she's sick and fussy. Not Fair.

I am at work and they are at home on a snow day again today.

Okay, no more griping.

Our First Parent-Teacher Conference

Oh no! Was Abby a bad girl so we had to talk with the teacher about her behavior?

Nope. The daycare that Abby is in does three Parent-Teacher Conferences a year with each child and their parents. November got away from them, and from us for that matter, so we didn't do them at that time. The others are in February (last Thursday) and May (end of year).

We sat with the head teacher to talk about all of the things on the developmental checklist for her age that she has mastered, which is everything. We also talked about the things on the checklist for the next older group (8-12 months), and she has gotten some of those things down, but certainly not everything. We'll get there.

One weird thing was to hear that we would set goals for Abby for the coming months. I was relieved to hear we are setting goals for Abby's care, not for Abby.

Our goals are:

• Increase opportunities for fine and gross motor development
• Continue to nurture trusting relationships with caregivers
• Stimulate verbal and nonverbal language development (talking, reading, singing, signing)
• Provide ample time and opportunity to explore her environment in a safe manner
• Encourage self-regulation and self-soothing techniques
• Encourage independence and age-appropriate problem solving techniques
• Introduce sippy cup (bought this weekend) and encourage self-feeding; introduce finger foods (which we did this weekend!)

We started her on half-cheerios this weekend! She's still not completely sure about it, but we'll get there. She is not spitting them at us, so we call that the right path. She has tried to chew, but since she only has two teeth, it is a lot more gumming than biting. More than a few have ended up on her onesie or bib. (Should just be bib, but Daddy didn't know that Cheerios actually do have color in them - dark brown - when it lands on a white undershirt...)

Abby is also getting closer and closer to crawling. Last night at church she made about 9 inches of forward progress! She has mastered getting on her hands and knees, but has been pushing backwards across the carpet and hardwood floors. We have begun to close the baby gate already, just in case. We're going to see the family in St Louis this weekend. Hopefully Abby's cousin Ada, six months older, who has recently been moving toward walking from crawling, can be convinced to crawl a bit as a teaching tool for Abby! She learned a lot from a couple of hours with Chase, so four full days should get some good learning time!

Abby went Friday and participated in another study at UMD, but I will let Anny post about it.

Abby's Six Month Checkup

We took our still-slightly-sick baby in for her previously scheduled Six Month doctor visit on Tuesday.

All good news! Her weight and height are in the same percentiles (75%) for the first time since she was born. She has always technically been on the heavy side, based on the official scales.

Details:
Height: 26.5 inches
Weight: 17 pounds

She got four more vaccines, one syrup and three shots. She did much better with the shots this time and had simmered down before we left the office. The last couple of times she would wimper all the way home.

Thursday we have Abby's school Christmas party! They have been working on gifts for their parents for a couple of days. I will post a picture of whatever she comes up with!

There are a lot of new pictures up at the Picasa Album, go check it out!

First Snowfall Follow Up

Thanks for the "captions" on the picture from Abby's first snow. Fun!

As a follow-up to that post, here is another School Story:

Since the snow was still on the ground, one of the teachers went out and brought some inside in buckets for the babies to play with! Abby liked it so much, frozen hands and all, that she actually cried when they took the snow bucket away! Of course, she was completely contented when they brought it back to her.

Another reason we really like our daycare is the diversity that they teach. We acknowledge that she is getting a broader sense of things there than we could teach her. As Hanukkah began this week, they read books and learned stories about that part of the Jewish faith tradition. Since they will not be in school the week after Christmas, they will learn about Kwanzaa next week.

Yes, I also acknowledge that Abby is not yet a six month old (but soon, wait for Abby's "film" debut"), so they're doing more teaching than she is learning. That is not the point. She is being exposed to more at her young age than I was for a good chunk of my life. Our hope is that when we move her from here to another place later on there will be as much emphasis on diverse learning. I also hope that we can be better about it than generations in the past too.

Back to snow...
There is another snow picture that I want to take, but I don't think that the snow will last into tomorrow. Supposed to be warm enough today to melt a lot of the rest. I'm working on school to send us some of the pictures they have taken.....

Happy Weekend!

Tales of a Schoolgirl

School Stories from this week, in pictures:



Another baby accidently scratched Abby on her head yesterday. We are guessing that it actually bled, but by the time we saw her she was fine. Because of regulations, though, we did also receive an Incident Report! (The picture is focused on the report-worthy scratch. Can you see it? I can't!)



Last Friday was picture day at school! We will see how their pictures come out.

In an effort to remind us to dress her nicely on Thursday of last week they stuck a sticker on her butt so that we could not miss it! Just says "The next school day is picture day!" Cuteness.

I have not scanned in the certificate she received for sitting up at school. Probably won't at this point.

We love our daycare folks. They are good to Abby and good to us. Thankful we are.